


Opportunity of a Lifetime

by ShelBrookie21



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Autistic Keith (Voltron), Autistic Pidge | Katie Holt, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Garrison trio, M/M, One Shot, Silly, and its so silly, im a big softy for wholesome friendships, this is my first fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 20:33:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13419096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShelBrookie21/pseuds/ShelBrookie21
Summary: It's Hunks first time working at the movie theater... so of course Pidge and Lance want to prank him. They're going to stack in a giant trench coat, until Pidge realizes they need another person to really pull it off. Lance thinks it will be easy until a stranger with a mullet and an attitude responds to their ad on Craigslist. Can they pull it off?





	Opportunity of a Lifetime

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Voltron, nor will I ever. My first fic ever so...enjoy!

_This is the opportunity of a lifetime,_ Lance had thought to himself as he purchased an extraordinarily long trench coat from that thrift shop. Seven long months later and his gut feeling had proved right.

"Hey that's so great buddy! I can't believe you got the job!" Lance practically shouted. He was currently holding hands with his best friend and leaping in a circle to celebrate. He quickly dropped his smile and playfully punched Hunk's arm. "Well I mean, of course I can believe it! Your resume is amazing, and I'm sure you killed your interview..."

"Lance, chill! I know what you meant. It's just exciting! I start tomorrow!"

Lance was grateful that his friend was so understanding even when his words got tangled. He almost felt bad for what he was going to do tomorrow. _Almost._

After giving Hunk a few more well-deserved moments of admiration, Lance excused himself to his bedroom and promptly called Pidge.

"Hey! Remind me how long you been waiting for your big moment."

"The meeting Mothman thing? Look Lance, I've already told you. I can't describe it any better. My dream was so realistic I think I already communicated with him. I can't explain how I know. It was just like a prophesy level dream. I still think-"

"No Pidge! Not that one. I meant the moment when you can fulfill the ultimate cartoon fantasy in real life and be sure you will die a legend."

Lance could hear Pidge's smile in her voice, "I'll see you in 10."

* * *

Lance paced dramatically in front of Pidge as if he were military to the bone, and Pidge made it even better by saluting Lance, all without cracking a smile. Lance loved that they worked so well when joking together. That's why they make the perfect duo to prank Hunk.

"Private Holt! It has come to my attention that our very own Mr. Sunshine himself has now gone and got himself a job!"

Pidge tilts her chin up, "sir yes sir! I sent Hunk 69 emojis in response to learning this myself. Most of them were red hearts and money bags."

Lance nods and has Pidge stand down, but they keep straightened faces and lowered voices while talking. They want each other to know they're taking this prank seriously.

"I need to show you something," Lance whispers to Pidge. She looks carefully to Lance and moves toward him with curiosity. Lance pulls out a bag and hands it to her. She reaches inside and pulls out the abnormally long trench coat inch by inch, giving it the appearance of a clown pulling out handkerchiefs, made especially funny in her little raccoon hands.

Her face lights up. "Lance! Why didn't you tell me you had one of these? We could have been getting into all kinds of shenanigans!"

" _And we were going to_ ," Lance offers sheepishly, "just...after me and Matt pranked you in class. We were going to come to the door during finals, all stacked up, to call you to the office and see the look on Iverson's face."

Pidge shoots Lance a confused look. "You and _Matt_?" You two are the least likely people to work together on a prank that I've ever seen! You're too alike! I never would have seen that comi- Lance! You're a genius!"

Lance perks up. "Thank you Pidge! It's nice to be recognized for something other than my immense beauty once in a while!" 

She laughed. "You know how badly I want to climb on your shoulders and prank Hunk, but I'm willing to sacrifice my current happiness for longterm joy. Hunk would know how to react if it were me or you at the head of the coat, he would just ignore us, but what would he do if it were a complete stranger?"

Lance grinned so hard his eyes closed. "Do people still use craigslist?"

* * *

 "Okay! She should be here soon. We're a little early" Pidge says while sitting down beside the fountain. They were meeting up with the one and only KnivesAndCats. At first Lance was worried that she would be some weird cat lady, but then she had proved herself to be fun.

Hours ago Lance got onto Craigslist to find the head for the other half of a seven foot trench-person-fusion.

He had posted: "Wanting to prank a friend tonight at 6 pm. He's working at the movie theater for the first time and I own a long trench coat. Climb on my shoulders & order a ticket with a straight face? I'll buy you dinner," and left his contact information. A few minutes later he had a response.

 **KnivesAndCats@gmail.com:**  hey i can do the trench coat thing. I'd say you're weary of the type of person who responds to weird requests like this quickly, but i swear i just found this because i'm looking to buy weird jackets to frustrate my brother. he says the one i wear now looks like a burrito wrapping my neck

 **sharpshooter3@gmail.com:** sweet are you shorter than like 5'6? if so lets meet up at the park at 5? i wanna be in public no offense lol. ill be with my friend close to the water fountain. i'm tall dark and handsome and she looks like a very snuggly goblin with teeny hands

 **KnivesAndCats@gmail.com:**  i'll spot you out easily then ;) and yeah i'm not that tall. i'll be there at 5. i have long black hair and i'll even wear my red "goofy ass jacket" as my brother so affectionately calls it so you'll know its me for sure

So she hadn't told them much but she definitely has a since of humor and flirted in a funny way. She seems like the type to be able to keep a straight face, which would be great for this prank, but also Lance had worried for a long time now that his future girlfriend wouldn't mesh well with his best friends. The trio kind of have a funny sense of humor and most people may just think they're weird. 

Lance let himself fantasize that this stranger was destined to be his soulmate. Her having long, black hair was very encouraging, too. He pictured it sweeping over her shoulders and Lance pushing it behind her ears. He imagined the sweet voice of a young woman. Maybe even with a british accent. That would be cute-

"Sharpshooter, right?" A deep voice interrupted his daydreaming. He focused his attention on the guy in front of him. He was a little shorter than Lance with large purple eyes. He was definitely shorter than 5'6, so Lance let himself be comforted that even if his future wife didn't make it to the meeting, he could maybe bribe this stranger into joking with Hunk. But wait- this stranger is wearing, oh no, a goofy ass jacket. It's terribly red and midwaist on the person wearing it.

Lance shook his head lightly and blinked. "No! You're supposed to be my future wife! I mean, she's supposed to be here and beautiful, not you! I mean, you have a- a mullet!"

The stranger frowned deeply as Lance went on showing his visible surprise and disappointment. He crossed his arms. "I thought I was just expected to be a helping hand. I didn't realize I was expected to be somebody's soulmate! I think I'm just gonna leave."

Lance starts to panic thinking he  would miss Hunk's big debut, but Pidge steps in before he could say anything else to offend the guy. "I'm sorry. My friend here is just a hopeless romantic. He can't help it; Lance is in love with being in love. He expects to find his soulmate everywhere. Don't take it personally, um... what's your name?"

"Keith," he offers. He doesn't smile, but he's definitely more relaxed after Pidge worked her magic. She's so precious; you can't think about being mad when you're with her.

"Keith," Pidge repeats. "Okay Keith, please work with us. We don't have enough time to find another head."

The stranger pauses and then sighs. "Okay. But you all owe me a dinner _and_ dessert."

* * *

Working with Keith is still tense after the initial awkwardness of their meeting. He agreed to work with them, but every time they try to get him to practice climbing on top of Lance, he freezes and it's like his fuse blows. 

This time Lance grabs him around the waist to pick him off the ground. Keith freezes then launches himself forward. He shoots a hard look at Lance and says, "nope, nope. Can't do that. Bad idea." And Lance gets it. Keith is afraid Lance is going to drop him. He has no reason to believe Lance won't let him get hurt. It's going to be hard for him to trust a stranger to pick him up like that. So Lance leans in and tries to comfort him.

"Listen. You can trust me. I'm not going to let you fall. I don't know if somebody else has hurt you or what, but I'll be here to catch you. Trust me, Keith," and the weird thing is it seems to work. Keith's eyes go wide and his mouth parts slightly. He gives Lance a small smile and nods. Lance is confused. He would have at least thought Keith would need Pidge's reassurance that his pranks don't ever involve hurting somebody or even some blackmail material or something. But no. Apparently Lance's word was enough because moments later Keith is turned around and guiding Lance's hands to his waist. He helps Lance pick him up by jumping a little.

Even with Keith's trust and his help, Lance topples over. There's no way to ease Keith's fall, as he is right on top of Lance's shoulders so Lance just tries to fall slowly. Keith crashes down in front of him and scuffs his palms. He sneers at Lance. "I thought you said you'd catch me!"

Lance immediately goes on the defensive. "Well you were the one who knocked me off balance! Your jump through everything off!"

Keith's face goes red. "I was trying to help!"

"I can't work like this!" Lance throws up his arms and storms off. 

* * *

Lance walks around the park but doesn't wander too far away. This was supposed to be his big day. Today was going to be the day he pulled off the perfect prank. It could have even been the day where he met his future wife after getting his friends approval. He was starting to think maybe he was too much of a a romantic; there's no way somebody could just blend in perfectly with his friends. He would have to accept that eventually.

Eventually he laps back towards Keith and Pidge. They're laughing and splashing the water from the fountain. Lance tries to listen but all he can catch through their giggling is something to do with dreaming about cryptids. Usually Pidge doesn't tell strangers about her Mothman dream. Some people in her class picked on her for being weird, so she felt like sharing the fact that her special interest was a Virginian cryptid would just make things worse.

Keith seemed to put her at ease and he looked at her like she was telling him the most important story ever. He definitely wasn't teasing her. They were just laughing together. Keith was truly getting along with one of the most important people in his life without even trying! He just meshed so well...

Okay, so maybe his soulmate wasn't a curly haired gal. Heck- maybe they weren't a gal at all. Maybe he was a guy with bright eyes and a godforsaken mullet. All he knew was Keith was really good at making his friend laugh, but that was a great place to start.

Pidge turns her head to wipe her tears on her sleeve -  _oh my god he actually made her laugh until she cried. Be still my beating heart_. She spots Lance and greets him with a wave.

"Lance! We figured it out. Keith just has to climb up your back. You have really long legs so he can step on them easily. It's all worked out," she spews excitedly.

Keith makes eyes with Lance but immediately lets them drop. He looks embarrassed.

"Sorry I kept messing up the last one. This time we can actually get it done. If you still want to try, of course. You don't have to," he blubbers.

Lance paints his face with determination and meets Keith's eye. "Come on. Let's do this."

* * *

 Lance's first thought after getting Keith to sit successfully on his shoulders was  _yes we finally got it right!_

His second thought was much more pressing. It ran along the lines of:  _okay Lance keep calm but you definitely have a crush on a very cute guy. a very cute guy who is on your shoulders. a very cute guy whose thighs are under your hands. a very cute guy who will remain in this position for several more minutes minimum and who gets along with your honorary little sister thus making him your soulmate. do. not. panic._

So of course, Lance was panicking. 

"Hey Lance are you okay? Just let me know if you need to put me down or anything. We're almost to the door so this would be the time," Keith's voice sounded from above.

Lances voice came out an octave higher than he intended, "no I'm great! Stay put!"

Keith paused for a moment and then said, "okay, man, sounds good."

Finally Lance felt the blow of the air conditioners through the jacket and heard some faint laughter from a few voices. They were finally inside. Lance could see his feet and a little bit of the world in front of him through one of the button slats. He headed towards Hunk's line where his friend was turned away fiddling with the popcorn machine.

Hunk finally turned around to face them and peered up slowly. He tried to meet eyes with Keith, but Lance knew all he would see is a bit of face peeking from the shadow of the hat he wore and the large rimmed sunglasses. "What the, um. Welcome to Cinema Six. What can I get for you?"

Lance hoped that Keith could see how soft Hunk is and knew not to actually upset or embarrass him.

He heard Keith pull up a deep southern accent as he said, "howdy. Can i get a pop please?"

Hunk glanced up and down his body. "Just one?" he asked with a smirk.

He heard Keith's smile in his words. "Yeah just one, handsome, but I'll make it two if you wanna skip work and catch the movie with me."

Lance's heart was going to melt. He knew he needed to be with somebody who appreciated Hunk as much as he did. He was afraid his future would be full of conversation after conversation of "are you cheating on me with Hunk?" when everybody should know, a person is either going to be super lovey with Hunk or they're evil. That's the only way to get along with Hunk; you love him with your whole heart.

Hunk giggled and handed Keith his drink. Keith traded him for his debit card. "Go ahead and pay for two tickets, just in case you change your mind."

Hunk handed him his receipt and said, "of course. Seriously though, thank you for making my first day so memorable."

Lance walked them towards the film rooms and let Keith off his shoulders gently. As he straightened up, Lance decided to really take in Keith's features. His hair was a mess from pulling that hat off his head and his eyes were made even brighter than before by an impossibly large smile. Lance's heart hurt just from staring. It took him a minute to realize Keith was staring too. They paused and in the quietness and humor of the moment they realized they had gravitated closer to one another than intended.

Keith grabs the back of his neck and drops his gaze. "I had fun today. Forget about buying that dinner. Hanging out with such cool people was really payment enough. I guess I'm going to head out." He let out a weak laugh.

Lance tried to think of something to keep them there together. He couldn't watch the movie with him, as Pidge was still waiting outside. He didn't have much else to offer him. He waited for Keith to come up with an excuse to continue hanging out, but all Keith offered was a pause. He waved at Lance and headed out the back door. Lance frowned but followed his lead a few minutes later and started to look for Pidge. 

* * *

Lance couldn't find Pidge anywhere. He walked back to the park after circling the movie theater twice. He wasn't too worried, Pidge was very independent and roamed the town by herself a lot. He was more confused. He expected her to meet him excitedly with a video of the prank. He checked his phone again to see if she had responded but instead saw a text from Hunk. "Code red. Come to the theater."

Code red was used explicitly for times when Hunk or Pidge found that week's future Mrs. McClain. Lance would head to wherever he was called and deliver a few bad one-liners. It was usually so much fun. He wasn't in the mood to flirt with some random girl today. Still he forced himself to put excitement on his face as he entered the theater, this time by himself.

"Hunk buddy! Looking sharp in the uniform! How goes it?" Lance bellows as he reaches Hunk's line.

Pidge is already standing next to Hunk, weirdly enough. Even weirder, she is refusing to meet Lance's eye.

"What's going on you two? I don't see any beautiful ladies hanging around. What about the code red?" Lance was confused but relieved by the thought he didn't have to play lover boy right now.

"Right. Well...Pidge  _may_ have told me you were the bottom half of a particularly tall man in a trench coat," Hunk spills out carefully.

Lance shot Pidge a sharp look. "Pidge! This was the most important prank of a lifetime!"

Hunk steps in, always the one to deescalate a situation. "Hey, she did it for the greater good!"

Lance tilts his head in confusion. "Greater good?"

Hunk looks down at his hands while he fidgets them. "Right. Lance. I know so far you've exclusively dated women but I have listened to your list of requirements for your soul mate. They have to have our sense of humor and they need to be able to play along. Also long hair is a bonus. Well this Keith guy is all of that. He didn't try to embarrass me and he flirted around with me."

Lance's jaw drops. Hunk starts again. "Pidge saw him leave without you through the back exit. She figured you had let him go so she came in here to get me involved. She told me everything. He made her laugh until she  _cried_ Lance! They info dumped about cryptids for a half hour together. He called me handsome. He went along perfectly with your prank. He's your soulmate! You have to get him back!"

Lance looks at his two best friends. He loves them so much. They really know him so well. He grabs one of each of their hands and squeezes. Then he pulls out his phone.

* * *

**Sharpshooter3@gmail.com:** missed connection. you were the top half of my 7 foot fusion. you called my best friend handsome and gushed about mothman. you left the movies before i could think of what to say. come to dinner at the waffle house at 10?

 **KnivesAndCats@gmail.com:** find me there wearing a goofy ass red jacket

* * *

Lance pushes his way to the entrance of the restaurant and immediately spots Keith.

He smiles so big he thinks his cheeks will crack and slides into the seat across from his date.

He finds his expression mirrored in Keith's face. Lance tries to drop his smile a bit in exchange for a coy look.

"Hey, earlier when you found me and Pidge, you immediately knew I was sharp shooter. You really do think I'm tall, dark, and handsome," he teases.

Keith gives him a smirk and lowers his eyes. "Actually, I just thought I saw an average every day goblin, but then really noticed her adorable raccoon hands. I knew she had to be your friend, and then I found you by proximity."

Lance laughs and settled back into his seat. Keith really does have his sense of humor. He offers his hand to the cute guy across from him and squeezes it once they're clasped together. He sighs dreamily. Buying that trench coat really was the opportunity of a lifetime.


End file.
